1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal and a Teletext information providing system and method, and more particularly to, a system and method for providing latest updated Teletext information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, Teletext services were developed for broadcasting, and are known to offer information, including regional and community information, weather information, and airport schedules, to a number of users by text or simple text/graphics through their respective distinctive pages. Teletext consists of pages, each of the pages comprising a header, a body, and additional information. Here, the header describes page number information and how a page is composed, the body describes information on main contents, and the additional information describes an extension function like a page link. Also, in analog broadcasting, a Teletext service performs decoding by identifying Teletext data based on a framing code, while in digital video broadcasting (DVB), it performs decoding after confirming information of Teletext on the basis of the stream-ID of a packetized elementary stream (PES).
Meanwhile, in mobile communication apparatuses, there are no such specific standards for Teletext services as broadcasting standards. They usually employ a method in which Teletext information is received by accessing to the internet using a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), a wireless LAN, etc., or a channel provider transmits summary information to users by SMS (short message services). Here, the WAP means the protocol that can reduce an amount of data to process them by a mobile terminal with a small screen in order to implement a function such as the current internet browser in the terminal, and the SMS means the service which enables data having a relatively short length (usually, 80 to 160 bytes) to be transmitted over a mobile communication network.
A typical conventional method of transmitting Teletext information to a user will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method of retrieving Teletext information using a WAP in a conventional mobile communication apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, firstly, a mobile terminal user accesses to a WAP server provided by a communication service provider in order to obtain newly updated Teletext information, and then accesses to a Teletext service provided by a service provider. Thereafter, a series of steps of searching for information of a specific Teletext page is repeated.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method of providing Teletext information by SMS in the relationship between a conventional user and a channel service provider.
Referring to FIG. 2, a user accesses to the homepage of a Teletext service provider, and then subscribes to a Teletext service on the homepage. Afterwards, the Teletext service provider transmits Teletext summary information to the user by SMS.
However, as described above, the conventional method of retrieving Teletext information through a WAP has the inconvenience that update times of Teletext pages provided by a Teletext service provider are not consistent, so that a WAP server must be kept accessed continuously in order to update latest information of a specific page.
Also, in case of displaying Teletext information using SMS, though it is not necessary to use a WAP server, the WAP server can process only text or simple text graphics information, so it cannot process high-volume graphics but obtain only summarized specific pages Besides, there is a problem that when the terminal is powered off or busy, the reliability is limited regarding whether or not a corresponding message is received.